A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy.
The report is based largely on a visit by a WHO team of international experts to Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected, from mid-January to mid-February. The report is expected to be released publicly in a few days.
The draft report is inconclusive on whether the outbreak started at a Wuhan seafood market that had one of the earliest clusters of cases in December 2019.
The discovery of other cases before the Huanan market outbreak suggests it may have started elsewhere. But the report notes there could have been milder cases that went undetected and that could be a link between the market and earlier cases.
Meanwhile, based on international experts' report on their mission to Wuhan, the WHO's chief said Monday that all hypotheses on the Covid-19 pandemic's origins remained open and needed further study.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the UN health agency had received the report over the weekend, adding that all theories on how the virus entered humans remained on the table.
"All hypotheses are open, from what I read from the report," Tedros told a virtual press conference in Geneva, adding that they "will need further study".
The report is based largely on a visit by a WHO team of international experts to Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected, from mid-January to mid-February. The report is expected to be released publicly in a few days.
The draft report is inconclusive on whether the outbreak started at a Wuhan seafood market that had one of the earliest clusters of cases in December 2019.
The discovery of other cases before the Huanan market outbreak suggests it may have started elsewhere. But the report notes there could have been milder cases that went undetected and that could be a link between the market and earlier cases.
Meanwhile, based on international experts' report on their mission to Wuhan, the WHO's chief said Monday that all hypotheses on the Covid-19 pandemic's origins remained open and needed further study.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the UN health agency had received the report over the weekend, adding that all theories on how the virus entered humans remained on the table.
"All hypotheses are open, from what I read from the report," Tedros told a virtual press conference in Geneva, adding that they "will need further study".
